“No one can serve two masters….You
cannot Serve god and money…”
Dear
Brothers and sister in Christ Jesus, the reading of the day especially the
gospel is very thought provoking. We come across an interesting debate here
about wealth.
(Lk 16, 9-15 & Rom 16, 3-9, 22-27)
In
the Context of the gospel, in the context of the Luckan Community we do
understand that wealth brought about a kind of a division or discrimination
between rich and the poor between HAVE’s and HAVE NOT’s. Thus there was rapture
in relationship between people.
The
first tanza of the Popular Kannada hymn -
Preethisu nee maanava – goes like this – Kannige kaanuva narana
preethisade, kaanada aa devara nee hege preethisuve? – If you cannot love
fellow human whom you can see, how can you love God who is invisible? This
implies rapture in relationship between God and people also led to the rapture
in relationship between God and his people.
Moving
a step further, WHAT IS WEALTH? Wealth
mentioned here is anything that comes between God and Us. It could be our
pride, selfishness, craze for power and prestige… anything that takes us away
from God.
St
Augustine says, “ Our hearts are made for thee, O Lord and they are restless until they
rest in you” . In this light when we look at the phrases of
faithfulness and being trustworthy, we understand that the reading invites us
to be constantly in touch with our deeper self, to be in touch with the
Lord who resides in our hearts.
Dear friends are there things,
people or anything else that blocks you from being in touch with the Lord? Are
we slaves of our own desires? Jesus says we can’t serve two masters. We have
one Lord and One Master.
The
reading also has the subtle undertone or an invitation to be persons who care
and share and not to be persons who hoard and amass. Why should we give…? I believe it’s because
our God did not hesitate to give his only son for our sake. Our God is a God
who gives.
It’s
a usual seen in LKG or UKG classes. Let’s say that there are 2 kids and there
are 2 chocolates on the table. One child comes running and grabs both the
chocolates. For a moment it finds a kind of a pride or a false joy…But that joy
doesn’t remain longer as it finds the sad face of the other child standing
before it. At this stage if someone helps the first child to share one of the
chocolates with the other child, it will initially hesitate but if it finally
gives with a long face. But soon it finds the smile on the face of the other
child and then the first child too starts smiling and I believe that is a
lasting joy. True dear friends- there a
great joy in Giving.
There
is no one in this world who are so poor that he/she cannot give. It could be
financial help to a person in need, or spending some time with a lonely or the
abandoned, or it could be a gentle smile or a kind word. Giving builds lives and relationships. When we build bonds of love
with our fellow brethren, we also grow in our relationship with our Lord.
During
this Eucharist let us ask for the grace to be generous givers and be person who
are deeply united with the Lord.
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